Shared Ownership Program in the UK

Shared Ownership Program in the UK

The concept of shared ownership was first introduced in the UK in the late 1970s as an initiative to help middle and low-income persons to afford to rent and eventually acquiring homes in the competitive UK real estate industry. The government-backed initiative primarily targeted persons within the economy that have limited financial capacity and whose ability to climb the property ladder was in serious question. According to details of the initiative, the scheme allows the government to chip-in and partner with interested persons who qualified for the program by allowing them to contribute between 25% and 75% of the total value of the property while the government foots the rest of the bill.

Persons earning an annual income of between 20,000 and 90,000 were considered eligible for consideration. Priority was also given to persons living in the proximity of their houses of interest as that would minimize the logistics involved in ensuring the success of the program. To further ensure the success of the objectives of the program, the UK government ensures that persons interested in benefiting from the program were not previous property owners or attached to any other property of value within the UK as well as overseas.

In the period between the rollout of the program in the 1970s and 2014, government reports indicate that up to 58,000 persons have successfully benefited. It has, therefore, increased the ownership potential of qualified persons while giving upcoming aspiring homeowners an opportunity to equally benefit. Besides helping persons to become homeowners, the program has also laid a good framework for successful beneficiaries of the program to sell their property after the end of the program.

This process is, however, highly regulated by the housing association in the country and only allows for 100% owners the full rights of merchandising their property. The association does, however, owing to its vested interests in the program, chip-in in situations where one may choose to sell the property before 100% transfer of ownership is achieved.

With the UK government successfully pushing the program, reports indicate that it has helped to positively shape the housing industry in the country while pushing developers to build more homes to meet the rising demand. The program has, since 2004, been successfully retailing home ownership at a rate of between 6,000 and 11,000 annually.

To ensure additional benefits and flexibility, the program has been designed to accommodate various customer demands, especially in situations where individuals still in the working industry who have enrolled for the program to sublet their houses and still maintain their leaseholds with the housing association. This allows for aspiring homeowners to successfully change their location in reference to their workplaces without necessarily being inconvenienced by the law. To find shared ownership properties in your area please visit Property Booking.